Blue Ponies defend home court against Glendive

After three weekends on the road, the Havre High volleyball team was finally home at Blue Pony Gymnasium this past weekend. On Saturday, the Blue Ponies hosted conference opponent Glendive, who they defeated in four sets (25-16, 25-27, 25-7, 25-10). While the Ponies won in four sets, HHS head coach Stephanie Huse believes the Red Devils gave them all they could handle.

“I thought it was a great battle,” Huse said. “I thought Glendive definitely came in and challenged us.”

In their first home match of the season, several Ponies played well. Yelena Miller led the Ponies with 11 kills and three blocks in the match. Avery Carlson also played well in her first home match with 10 kills, 24 digs and three service aces. Molly Huse recorded three service aces while posting 29 assists in the match.

While it was nice to play at home, it was not easy at first.

“It was a little bit nervous for us but after the first set, we were, like, we could do this and we just started playing our game,” Miller said about playing at home for the first time this fall.

The first set started competitively with both teams fighting to an 8-8 tie. The Ponies finally took momentum with a 4-0 run to take the lead. Even after the Red Devils broke up the run, the Ponies just got back on a roll to stretch the lead to 19-10. The Devils responded with a run to cut the deficit to 20-15, but the Ponies ended the set on a 5-1 run to win the set 25-16.

Despite the Ponies’ win to start the match, it was the Devils that came out with energy to start the second set. After a 4-4 tie early in the set, the Devils went on a 6-2 run to take the lead.

After the Ponies tied the set, 13-13, the Devils took control with a 9-1 run to take a 22-14 lead in the set. But the Ponies showed their resiliency as they came back to tie the set 25-25.

“I think it just speaks to the character of the girls,” Stephanie Huse said about the comeback. “I think they know that it’s not over until it says 25.”

But the early hole in the set proved too costly for Havre as the Devils scored two straight points to win the set. With the 27-25 victory, the Devils tied the match 1-1.

While the Ponies failed to steal the second set, they took that momentum into the third set. After leading 2-1 early in the set, the Ponies scored 10 straight points to build a 12-2 lead. The Devils were never able to recover from that start as the Ponies cruised to a 25-7 victory in the set to take a 2-1 lead in the match. After losing the second set, the Ponies were ready to put their foot to the pedal the rest of the match.

“It kind of riled us up a little bit. We were kind of mad,” Miller said. “We just wanted to crush it and have fun out there and get the energy up high.”

The Ponies continued to roll as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead to start the fourth set. After the Devils scored a point, the Ponies went on a 9-0 run to stretch the lead to 14-2. The Devils were never able to put a run together as the Ponies went onto win, 25-10, to win the match 3-1.

With the win, the Ponies improved to 4-0 on the season and 3-0 in the Northeast A. While the Ponies are off to a strong start this year and played well against Glendive, Stephanie Huse believes the adversity they overcame in this most recent match shows her what her team is capable of.

“It speaks volumes when we hit a lull in volleyball and things aren’t going our way, how we really have to find a different gear in those moments and try to get ourselves out of it instead of having it own us,” Huse said. “There’s a lot of great lessons in that match.”

The HHS volleyball team will next play on the road this Thursday against Browning.

Havre def. Glendive

25-16, 25-27, 25-7, 25-10

HAV - Aces 11 (Molly Huse 3, Avery Carlson 3, Lizzi Haney 1); Kills 40 (Yelena Miller 12, Carlson 10, Kyanna Jarvis 8); Assists 39 (Huse 39); Blocks 6 (Miller 3, Jarvis 1, Huse 1); Digs 84 (Carlson 24, Jarvis 20, Haney 15).